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most of this evening i've had the sponge bob square pants song "best day ever" running through my head. today has been one of the very best days of my life thus far! seriously!

this morning began with some nerves and jitters. lots of tearing through boxes attempting to find our dress clothes and the right shoes to go with the clothes. we never found the shoes!

the "pasture church" came into town so that i wouldn't have to do 2 services on my first day--how sweet is that? prior to the service there was a coffee time in our honor. we met a lot of people--all very kind and sweet.

despite my jumping in at some of the wrong places and having to be reminded that we still needed to do the offering, the service went very well! it felt so good knowing that this was "my church." not "my church" in a possessive sort of way but it is where i'm supposed to be, i'm not filling in for anyone, it's "my church." does that mak…

right now it's 9:15 and the girls are still outside playing hoops with a very sweet kid from church who lives in the neighborhood. their chicken noodle soup is cold and their "soda on the side" is probably hot by now. it is a beauty to behold and listen to their conversations. i don't want to call them in because i am enjoying it tremendously!

living here in MC is tremendously different from living in Kansas City. TREMENDOUSLY DIFFERENT! the kids are safe to walk around town, walk to the swimming pool on their own. our first night here, joel and i realized that the door to the basement was unlocked. we went back to sleep rather than go and lock the door! that NEVER would have happened before. don't worry, i know that things can happen here, it's just so enjoyable and lovely to let the girls have some freedoms that they couldn't in KC.

"I am feeling like playing hooky, and I'm putting off sermon prep till tomorrow. It is a beautiful, sunny day at my place. So come on outside and let's play a summer Friday Five!This post is loosely based on previous "wordy" Friday Fives from Reverend Mother and Songbird. I liked the results, and so we are doing another word association . Theirs were based on words from a lectionary text. Mine comes from the Lovin' Spoonful song, "Summer in the City."Think summer......are you there? Below you will find five words or phrases. Tell us the first thing you think of on reading each one. Your response might be simply another word, or it might be a sentence, a poem, a memory, a recipe, or a story." You get the idea:

it seemed to take so long to get to this "place" and now it's merely days away!

tomorrow is our "see you soon" party--we couldn't bare calling it a "good-bye" party. so that means i have TONS to do around the house (as well as write a few things for the new church newsletter!) so i really should stop playing around on the computer! ugh! procrastination is an evil beast!

it's also exciting that we'll be picking out paint colors for the parsonage this afternoon! currently it's all white so i'm excited about adding some splashes of colors. we'll be painting it on Sunday and Monday before anything gets moved in. it will be much easier than waiting til after we get our stuff in.

this is what my office looks like right now! i have just a few things of my own thus far but i'm sure it will fill up quickly. the bookshelves are mostly bare because there was only one box of books out that i could reach. on the desk is a Frida Kahlo box/stack of notes and a hoops and yoyo button that we're probably going to put on my door (they yell stuff like "helloooo! hellooo! did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" and other goofy stuff, that will be my doorbell!). yesterday Merkin and i went up for a few meetings and to look around the house, settle in the office a bit. SweetiePie (the church secretary--not a great name but that's exactly what she is!) helped me know a bit more about the administrative and paper work aspects of being the pastor (ick! i've got a LOT to learn about that!). she also took us to lunch where we met approximately 25 folks from the church! this is the warmest small town i've ever been to! SweetiePie gave us tours of the to…

i doubt i'll be in the blogosphere for the next few weeks or so (of course, whenever i say this i tend to start blogging even more!) we're moving in approximately 10 days and i've got to stop procrastinating and get to it! we're also having a "see you soon" party for the girls and their friends (i'm thinking we just might invite our adult friends too!). so we'll be really busy.

know that we are fine, just busy and i'll check back in as soon as i can!

driving home from annual conference we drove by this sign, then turned around and came back to see if our eyes had decieved us. i had to take a picture. joel suggested that i go inside and ask what kind of gun but i thought that would take the fun out of it. i didn't want to know. i do wonder how many folks stop in just to see what this is about. great marketing ploy or simply more crazy Missourians?

A.C. was good. i had the chance to get to know the lay leader at the church where we'll be going in 2 weeks and 1 day (that's the countdown according to Val). i am excited and terrified and not terrified all at once.

since this is my first time i'm wondering how to nicely ask for a few things or at least find out if i can do them. the first thing they said when they showed me the office was that we could change the wall colors, take down the corkboard, do other stuff. the only thing i'd like to do is change the color. is this something i do or they do?

1. How important is the "big picture" to you, do you need a glimpse of the possibilities or are you a details person? i would say that i'm good with the "big picture" and imagining the possibilities. sometimes i enjoy the details but mostly that's just not me. i tend to get more excited about the big picture and it seems that often the details keep us from being able to see it. details can be fun and interesting but we have to be careful not to get hung up on them.

2. If the big picture is important to you how do you hold onto it in the nitty gritty details of life? that's a great question. it could definately explain why i'm always running late--the nitty gritty details simply pass me by. i'm terrible with them--my house for example is a disaster (which we've got to change since we'll be moving into a parsonage!) because in the overall scheme of things it simply doesn't matter. to be honest, i probably use the big picture to dismiss …

first of all, i don't like our dog. i'm not really a pet person (i keep saying these things in hope that it would make me stop worrying and caring about the silly dog). Wishbone is the best dog ever! he is terribly sweet and loving. as Valerie and Ainsley learned to walk they would pull themselves up on him. he would just let them, never nipping at them nor barking. we would try to prevent the girls from doing so but as other 'rents will attest it's impossible to always keep your kiddos in line. he's a wonderful dog--sweet, loving, and kind. he's around 9 years old and getting "old" too soon. this year he has developed diabetes and has a moderate hear murmur as well. we've been working on getting his insulin dosage just right but so far i don't think we've hit that perfect number. he was into the vet about two weeks ago to get his blood levels checked out. the doc noticed that he was beginning to have cataracts. last night we …

it's not too often that i post a book on the blog, but i have really enjoyed this book. it's a book for youth ministers but i've found that many books for youth ministry also work with adults with a few minor changes and sometimes not any at all.

additionally, i'm not a huge fan of Zondervan publishing--which this book is. so perhaps that's why i'm posting it.

i'll admit it. i haven't even finished it. however, i have flipped through it and i love many of the prayers i've read. they are in plain english and varied but include many for those times when you just want to quit as a youth minister (or any other kind of minister i'd guess). they name and voice the frustrations i've faced and pray for guidance beyond that.

it also includes a variety of services, including a memorial service for a youth member--i can't even imagine how difficult that would be.

the book is written by Steven L. Case, and i know nothing about him. i suppose i could go…

the cheeky chaplain has scolded me for not blogging so since i've been procrastinating anyway i thought i might as well blog. besides, perhaps you can point me back to work.

we've met the pastor parish committee and toured the house. everyone seems very nice and some things seem rather complicated but i can't really get into that here. we are very excited about the appointment and part of me wishes that i could just jump right in and start. however, i'm glad that is not the case.

i've been prepping to write the first 4 or 5 sermons. yesterday i went and bought a bunch of commentaries and other books that i thought would be helpful. today i've been surfing the net looking for other helps.

i did pick the scriptures for the last Sunday in June and the month of July. i am looking forward to July because i LOVE the parables! this church seems to be used to having only one scripture read. for July i plan on going along with that. i do plan on switching the ser…